[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

No the UK is a single country. What you call countries are called states or provinces in other countries. The UK has 1 single seat at the UN and 1 single team at the olympics, why? because the UK is one single country. If you think england, wales, and scotland are separate countries, well then take it up with the UN, not me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The UK does not have a team at the Olympics :

Team GB is an abbreviation of the official nickname given to the representative teams of the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association (who are officially known as "ParalympicsGB"[1] ), Team GB and Northern Ireland. The nickname has courted controversy outside of England, Scotland and Wales, who together form Great Britain, mainly from Northern Ireland Unionist MPs who feel it excludes and alienates nations outside of the Island of Great Britain.

The British Isles are made up of several overlapping components :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...diagram_15.svg

They are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom) and the Republic of Ireland (officially and also known commonly as Ireland). The British Isles also include three dependencies of the British Crown: the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termino..._British_Isles

It's rather more complicated than the simple country/state analogy

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Omah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom



The UK does not have a team at the Olympics :



The British Isles are made up of several overlapping components :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...diagram_15.svg



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termino..._British_Isles

It's rather more complicated than the simple country/state analogy

1 seat at the UN. The UK is a "soverign state" so what does that mean. lol if the UK wants to be called a state, does that mean you think all 50 of the American states are individual countries too??

we are playing semantics. it's boring.

The UKGBNI is a country, just like the USA, or the Soviet Union(r.i.p.) or the PRC(people's republic of china)

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

1 seat at the UN. The UK is a "soverign state" so what does that mean. lol if the UK wants to be called a state, does that mean you think all 50 of the American states are individual countries too??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_state

A sovereign state (or simply state) is classically defined as a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither dependent on nor subject to any other power or state. The existence or disappearance of a state is a question of fact. While according to the declaratory theory of state recognition a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to exercise full treaty-making powers and engage in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states

(207, including the USA)

[Redway]

Originally Posted by Omah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom



The UK does not have a team at the Olympics :



The British Isles are made up of several overlapping components :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...diagram_15.svg



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termino..._British_Isles

It's rather more complicated than the simple country/state analogy

Thank you so much for posting that, Omah. It seems Alex's entire argument was wrong, then.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Redway

Thank you so much for posting that, Omah. It seems Alex's entire argument was wrong, then.

actually it's not lol, the UK still only has 1 UN seat and 1 olympic team.

please tell me what other olympic teams or UN seats the UK has...

I don't see how he proved anything i said wrong... lol

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

actually it's not lol, the UK still only has 1 UN seat and 1 olympic team.

please tell me what other olympic teams or UN seats the UK has...

I don't see how he proved anything i said wrong... lol

You obviously have not read enough about the geographical and political history if the British Isles to understand how and why they are separately formed and named.

I believe that, if we throw Empire and Commonwealth into the mix, it will be totally beyond your comprehension .....

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Omah

You obviously have not read enough about the geographical and political history if the British Isles to understand how and why they are separately formed and named.

I believe that, if we throw Empire and Commonwealth into the mix, it will be totally beyond your comprehension .....

and you don't seem to understand REALITY.

1 flag, 1 country. get over it. if you wanna change it, well then send a fan letter to Alex Salmond, i'm sure he'll appreciate it.

The US has plenty of territories that are individual countries and each have their own seats at the UN, and send their own teams to the olympics, so yes, as an American i do understand what you're getting at, i'm telling you that you are wrong though, and i am right.

I don't think the other members of the commonwealth would like your implication that they are part of the Uk as a country lol, i'm pretty sure they consider themselves INDEPENDENT countries.

Last time i checked India, and Australia, and Pakistan, and Jamaica are not willing to call themselves BRITISH.

England, Wales, Scotland, and NI, are just states of the UK though, in the same way that California, Florida, New York, and Texas are part of the USA

[Redway]

Originally Posted by lostalex

and you don't seem to understand REALITY.

1 flag, 1 country. get over it. if you wanna change it, well then send a fan letter to Alex Salmond, i'm sure he'll appreciate it.

So England (country 1), Scotland (country 2), Wales (country 3) and Northern Ireland (country 4) are all one country now? Laughing my arse off. 4 in 1, yeah? Four countries = 1 country? Is that what you're saying, darling? Is that what you're saying? Please - give me an effing break.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Redway

So England (country 1), Scotland (country 2), Wales (country 3) and Northern Ireland (country 4) are all one country now? Laughing my arse off. 4 in 1, yeah? Is that what you're saying? Please - give me an effing break.

just because you use the word "country" doesn't mean anything. they are not sovereign. they do not have their own independent governments, they do not have their own independent militaries. They are part of 1 state/country. They have a central federal government in London. Actually the individual US states have more sovereignty than the individual "countries" in the UK.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

I don't think the other members of the commonwealth would like your implication that they are part of the Uk as a country lol, i'm pretty sure they consider themselves INDEPENDENT countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_...lth_of_Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 54 independent sovereign states (one of whose membership is currently suspended). Most are former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies. No one government in the Commonwealth exercises power over the others, as in a political union. Rather, the relationship is one of an international organisation through which countries with diverse social, political, and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status, and co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace, and are carried out through multilateral projects and meetings, as well as the quadrennial Commonwealth Games. The symbol of this free association is Queen Elizabeth II, known for this purpose as Head of the Commonwealth. This position, however, does not imbue her with any political or executive power over any Commonwealth member states; the position is purely symbolic, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organisation.

The Commonwealth was first officially formed in 1931 when the Statute of Westminster gave legal recognition to the independence of dominions. Known as the "British Commonwealth", the first members were the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Dominion of Newfoundland, although Australia and New Zealand did not adopt the statute until 1942 and 1947 respectively. In 1949, the London Declaration was signed and marked the birth of the modern Commonwealth and the renaming to its present name. The most recent member is Rwanda, which joined on 29 November 2009.

Presently, of the states that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, three are in Europe, twelve in North America, one in South America, nineteen in Africa, eight in Asia, and eleven in Oceania (including one suspended member, Fiji). There are six former members, four of which no longer exist as independent entities (but form part of current member states). The members have a combined population of 2.2 billion people, almost a third of the world population, of which 1.21 billion live in India and 95% live in Asia and Africa combined.

Currently sixteen of the member states are Commonwealth realms with the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II also as their head of state, five others are monarchies with their own separate monarchs (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Swaziland, Tonga) and the rest are republics.